NFL unveils new Pro Bowl uniforms

Marshawn Lynch appears for short session at Media Day, avoids major fine

Marshawn Lynch and Media Day... a match made somewhere other than heaven. (Matt Slocum/AP)

NEWARK, N.J. -- Those who have covered Marshawn Lynch since he was traded to the Seattle Seahawks have been frustrated at times with his unwillingness to deal with the media in a public, on-the-record way. Some players would prefer to avoid that particular Pandora's Box, and Lynch is definitely one -- the Pro Bowl running back doesn't like talking about himself (the better he performs in a game, the sooner he's out of the locker room afterward), and there may be an element of fear that the press will write their own stories about him no matter what he says.

Of course, it doesn't help when Lynch doesn't talk, and the media is left with nothing to do but that. The NFL stepped in earlier this month and fined Lynch $50,000 for refusing to speak with the media throughout the 2013 season. His first subsequent media session on Jan. 5 clocked in at about 90 seconds and featured a host of monosyllabic responses.

The NFL started to back off on the fine structure until Lynch threatened to go dark on Media Day, potentially opening himself to the reversal of the suspension of that fine, with an extra $50,000 thrown in for good measure. Lynch was not assigned a podium for Seattle's Media Day at the Prudential Center, but he did speak ... for a little over six minutes, before backing up and backing off. He later conversed with Deion Sanders of the NFL Network for a couple minutes, and that was that.

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However, whatever Lynch did was enough to reportedly avoid any further fine from the NFL. When asked by Sanders whether he preferred to let his play do the talking, he responded simply and definitively.

"I'm all 'bout that action, boss," Lynch told Sanders.

"He doesn't feel comfortable in settings like this," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday. "And he doesn't like to do things he's told to do. Fortunately that hasn't been a factor for our football team. In this setting, he becomes something of a recluse and he doesn't want to be part of it. We try to respect him as much as we can."